Thursday, October 04, 2012

That’s Straus Ice Cream. It’s good. Well it’s good but it’s also expensive because the cows are free range, the cream is organic, and the chocolate chips are grown in humane conditions that probably involve love and tenderness and yuppies that act like they don’t want to screw you for a profit but really do.

I’m eating a lot of it.

It’s due to stress. It’s not kid stress because kids are actually really easy. In fact, this years crop is pretty much outstanding; from the Second Language students asking question after question, to the Advanced Placement students wanting to dive deeper into economic reality, to my APUSH students who are so damn good that it is stupid. I mean, you can’t make up the awesomeness that involves walking into class and having these students every day. It’s really damn cool.

Until they leave. Then comes the stuff that has nothing to do with students. It’s the stuff that nags, that takes up time, that requires energy but eventually produces little results. It’s often nonsense to you but might not be nonsense to someone else, and that someone might be mad if you call it nonsense which creates more problems. And so on and so on. So I’ve started saying no to people. I’m sorry but my resources can only be stretched so far and the piles of work that need to be graded for the students in my classroom now take priority over my volunteer work for your benefit. Does that sound mean? Sure, except the real mean thing is not putting forth the full effort for my students because of the potential risk of someone else being offended. We all have jobs and right now I need to reprioritize mine and get my focus back.

That’s Straus Ice Cream. It’s good. Well it’s good but it’s also expensive because the cows are free range, the cream is organic, and the chocolate chips are grown in humane conditions that probably involve love and tenderness and yuppies that act like they don’t want to screw you for a profit but really do.

I’m eating a lot of it.

It’s due to stress. It’s not kid stress because kids are actually really easy. In fact, this years crop is pretty much outstanding; from the Second Language students asking question after question, to the Advanced Placement students wanting to dive deeper into economic reality, to my APUSH students who are so damn good that it is stupid. I mean, you can’t make up the awesomeness that involves walking into class and having these students every day. It’s really damn cool.

Until they leave. Then comes the stuff that has nothing to do with students. It’s the stuff that nags, that takes up time, that requires energy but eventually produces little results. It’s often nonsense to you but might not be nonsense to someone else, and that someone might be mad if you call it nonsense which creates more problems. And so on and so on. So I’ve started saying no to people. I’m sorry but my resources can only be stretched so far and the piles of work that need to be graded for the students in my classroom now take priority over my volunteer work for your benefit. Does that sound mean? Sure, except the real mean thing is not putting forth the full effort for my students because of the potential risk of someone else being offended. We all have jobs and right now I need to reprioritize mine and get my focus back.